Award-winning writer and dynamic speaker, Mary-Kate Mackey offers great gardening ideas. She is the recipient of a 2017 Garden Media writing award for her “Rooting for You” blog posts, as well as three other awards for her work in Country Gardens and Meredith’s Outdoor Spaces. Co-author of Sunset’s Secret Gardens, her numerous articles have appeared in Fine Gardening, Horticulture, and Sunset.

Peonies Now and Forever—Every garden deserves a king

It’s time for flower festivals! These once-a-year celebrations allow gardeners to pick up rare and unusual plants, just at the moment when they really look good. And here comes the Peony and Bamboo Festival, on April 22 and 23, at the Seattle Chinese Garden.

This month I’m talking with Phil Wood, owner of Phil Wood Garden Design and co-chair of this yearly event that highlights tree peonies. These deciduous woody shrubs, Phil tells me, are revered in China as the king of flowers. They’ve been bred for well over a thousand years.

Tree peonies flourish in a wide range of growing zones. They can be started from seed in a greenhouse, and Phil notes that in China, the bloom time is often manipulated under glass. Outside, he says. “They’re earlier to bloom than the more familiar herbaceous peonies, and they have larger flowers.”

Despite their exotic background, tree peonies are easy care. Plant container-grown specimens in a permanent location (they resent transplanting) in good well-draining soil. They’ll take several growing seasons to settle, but once established, the exquisite shrubs will provide years of garden delight.

These showstoppers come in a wide variety of sumptuous blooms, including elegant singles or some with, “more exuberant petals than a can-can dancer’s skirt,” Phil says. “And they smell as good as they look.”

Here are six that will be available at the festival. And the best part? If you can’t make it to the Seattle Chinese Garden, you can find these beauties online. Search by their Chinese names, although some are also sold under English monikers.